The present invention relates to portable devices and more particularly to a hand held portable device adapted to receive a signature on a signature pad and print a first receipt and a carbon copy receipt with the signature electronically transferred onto both receipts.
Hand held portable electronic devices are used in a variety of applications, such as for the distribution and control of products distributed to a route or sales person. The hand held portable electronic devices can provide a route or sales person with data to the product information, cost information, customer information as well as inventory information relating to the availability of products. Recently, hand held portable devices have been made available that capture a signature of the customer and can store the signature in digitized form and in some cases verify the signature with a previously recorded signature. Typically, the digitized signatures are downloaded to a main computer system at a later time for storing and providing a record of the digitized signatures. However, in some cases the route or sales person may drop the hand held portable device or the device can become damaged during transport causing the device to lose the digitized signatures resulting in loss of record of the transaction. An effort has been made to solve this problem by providing a receipt with a space for the customer to sign and placing the receipt over the digitized pad, so that a signature receipt can be provided simultaneously with the capturing of the digitized signature. This method is cumbersome for the route or sales person and if the customer loses this receipt, the receipt with the signature cannot be reproduced.
Accordingly, there is a strong need in the art for a hand held portable device that overcomes the aforementioned problems.
According to one aspect of the present invention, a hand held portable device is provided that includes a signature pad for receiving a customer""s signature and a carbon copy receipt printer that can print out a receipt with customer information, product information and the customer""s digitized signature on both a merchant receipt and a customer receipt. The hand hold portable device can also be provided with a bar code reader and a thermal transfer bar code printer. The hand held portable device is adapted to allow a user to input product information, inventory information, customer information and accept customer signatures. The portable device allows the user to select between reading a bar code, printing a bar code label and printing a receipt containing at least one of the digitized signature received by the digitized pad and the bar code information read from the bar code label. The hand held portable device can also download data to a main computer via a communication system with a connector or a radio frequency link. Warning LED""s are provided to inform the user whether a signature has been accepted or a bar code label has been properly read.
In accordance with one aspect of the present invention, a hand held portable device is provided. The hand held portable device includes a signature pad adapted to receive and digitize a signature written on the signature pad and a receipt printer adapted to output a receipt with the digitized signature contained thereon.
In accordance with yet another aspect of the present invention, a method of performing a sales transaction is provided. The method includes the steps of providing a hand held data terminal with a signature pad and a receipt printer, writing a signature on the signature pad, digitizing the signature and storing the digitized signature in a memory, outputting the digitized signature to the receipt printer and printing a receipt with the digitized signature thereon.
In accordance with another aspect of the present invention, a hand held portable device is provided. The hand held portable device includes a signature pad adapted to receive and digitize a signature written on the signature pad, a bar code reader adapted to read a bar code label, a receipt printer adapted to output a receipt with at least one of the digitized signature contained thereon and bar code data corresponding to information read from the bar code by the bar code reader, an input device adapted to allow a user to input product information and a bar code printer adapted to print a bar code label containing the product information inputted by the user.
In accordance with yet another aspect of the present invention, a hand held portable device is provided. The hand held portable device includes means for digitizing a signature written on a signature pad and means for printing a receipt with the digitized signature contained thereon.
To the accomplishment of the foregoing and related ends, the invention then, comprises the features hereinafter fully described and particularly pointed out in the claims. The following description and the annexed drawings set forth in detail certain illustrative embodiments of the invention. These embodiments are indicative, however, of but a few of the various ways in which the principles of the invention may be employed and the present invention is intended to include all such embodiments and their equivalents. Other objects, advantages and novel features of the invention will become apparent from the following detailed description of the invention when considered in conjunction with the drawings.